 Smoke
free Europe
The trend has started and
many countries in the EU are finally getting
serious about banning smoking in public places.
It was Ireland that became the first country
in the world to ban smoking in all workplaces,
including bars and restaurants, which has huge
negative effects on sales - plunging profits
down. This comes to no surprise as these types
of establishments already attract smokers –
who in respect strongly expect these places
to be their getaway smoking retreats.
Medical organizations are pressing
and national governments around Europe are finally
getting serious about tackling tobacco. Norway
and Malta have already followed Ireland's lead,
and Sweden is already in the process. Britain
is expected to announce its own regulations,
which industry observers predict will outlaw
smoking in restaurants and pubs that serve food.
Even in France, where restaurants seem as indelible
a partnership as croissants and coffee, enforcement
of a largely ignored restriction on indoor smoking
has been stepped up.
Commercially, cigarette sales
in Europe, excluding heavy smokers Greece and
Portugal, have fallen 6.3% in the past two years,
says British researchers, and they are expected
to drop an additional 6.4% by 2009. They say
there has been a recent shift in public opinion
against smoking, whereby more people than ever
are aware that passive smoking can kill, and
that more countries will start cracking down
on it to prevent further health risks.
Not only are bans tactics being
used by the politicians, but the EU called on
governments to put gruesome pictures of cancerous
growths and blackened lungs on cigarette packs.
Many countries are using tax hikes to suppress
sales. Germany added 32 cents a pack in levies
in March 2004, bringing the average price of
a pack of smokes to $4.90, and will hike taxes
by the same amount in December and then in September,
2005.
But higher taxes don't always
have the expected results. In France, tax hikes
to cover a hole in the social security budget
have raised the price of an average pack by
39% over the past two years, to $6.40. That
has led to a 30% plunge in cigarette sales,
but not an equivalent decline in smoking, as
consumers turn to the Internet, cross-border,
and black-market sources.
The future of smoking in Europe
looks to be heading in a “clearer”
direction. Although it doesn’t mean that
the success of it’s campaignes and other
means of smoke-free regulations will predict
a business stability in bars and restaurants
– if eventually any at all.
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